I remember when I first started using internet, BBS were already mostly gone in favour of www, but whenever you were searching for some more obscure information, you'd eventually run into a reprint of some discussion on some BBS board. Like, if you were looking for more detailed info on crossbows, you'd find a quote of what some old crossbow enthusiast wrote on alt.crossbows.long-crossbows.long-wooden-crossbows.